Gerard Deulofeu, once one of European football’s brightest hopes, is finally fulfilling his potential to give Watford supporters hopes of their very own continental adventure.

The former Barcelona prodigy used the Cardiff City Stadium pitch as his playground as he scored a hat-trick in this striking win for Javi Gracia’s men.

Sol Bamba grabbed a consolation for Cardiff with 10 minutes to go, but Deeney had the last laugh as he completed a close-range double to send Watford into seventh.

Javier Hernández on hand as West Ham recover from early blow to beat Fulham

Read more

“He played really well scored three goals but not only that; he was very generous to assist Troy [for his first goal],” said Gracia of Deulofeu. “All these details are so important because all the players are pulling in the same direction and helping each other, which is great for us.

“I’m happy with the way he is playing, we are competing in all the games and, with this ambition, we can achieve something special this season.”

As both sets of players arrived here, news broke of Watford reaching a £4m settlement with Everton over the departure of Marco Silva last year. Gracia’s successful start to life as manager has allowed Watford fans to say good riddance to Silva.

It took Deulofeu 18 minutes to put himself on the path to become Watford’s first hat-trick hero since Mark Falco in 1986. Cardiff’s returning captain, Sean Morrison, Bruno Manga and Joe Bennett all tried and failed to wrest the ball off Deeney on the edge of the area before he laid it off for the Spanish forward to find the bottom corner with pin-point accuracy.

Neil Warnock’s men were second best but should have had an opportunity to equalise after Daryl Janmaat got the wrong side of Josh Murphy and brought him down with a clumsy challenge in the box. The referee, Simon Hooper, waved away the protests to the disgust of the Cardiff fans and manager before he blew for half-time.

Deulofeu had not scored for eight matches but looked as if he was back playing for Barcelona as he ran riot in the second half. Abdoulaye Doucoure headed Bennett’s free-kick clear and into the path of the former Everton player, who knocked the ball past Manga on the halfway line, before taking it round Neil Etheridge and slotting home his fifth goal of the season.

Deulofeu completed his first hat-trick in English football on 63 minutes after Etienne Capoue robbed Harry Arter of possession and slipped him in behind the defence for him to lift the ball over Etheridge.

Deulofeu danced past the defence and set up Deeney for an easy tap-in after 73 minutes. There was still time for Bamba to bundle home but Deeney wrapped up the 5-1 thumping from close range.

“It was bizarre, the referee said he seen it and he had made a mistake,” fumed Warnock about the penalty decision. “Mistakes shouldn’t be made at this level.

“Deeney and all of them were telling me it was a stonewall penalty and it would have been different if we’d gone in 1-1 with our tails up.”